How do you organise your files?

NickyJim · Post by **NickyJim** » 10 Oct 2006 00:30

I'm just about to try and reorganise the family history files I have on my computer before they get too unwieldy. I was just wondering how other people have decided to do theirs & if anyone can offer any advice of things to do, or things to avoid. I tried searching on the forum for a similar thread, but couldn't find anything.

I currently just have a root folder 'Family' with sub-folders such as 'Census', 'Births', 'Marriages' etc. Even though this only contains documents for one branch of my family at the moment, starting with one of my great grandfathers, some of the folders are starting to get quite large. I want to add in all of the other unsorted information I have for the other parts of my tree and want to decide on the most suitable structure before I start.

I quite like the idea of starting with separate folders for each of my great grandparents and then subdividing these into folders like 'Census', 'Births' etc. This then makes it easy for me to gather together and pass on any information I have about certain branches of my tree e.g. if a relative or someone I've contacted on GenesReunited is interested in a branch of the tree I can just copy the whole folder instead of going into each of the 'Census', 'Births' folders & trying to find the right files. I could also keep the 'Census' & 'Births' just under the root and then subdivide these folders for each of my great grandparents. I don't know which would be best!

Obviously something like this is down to personal choice, but any comments would be much appreciated.

ID:1905

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 10 Oct 2006 08:25

I have a structure similar to the one you currently have for all my data.

If I need to send media to other people I use my little FHC program after splitting my tree to 'package' up all the relevent media into one folder.

I have a fair number of files, in the folders. The only thing I do is have subdirectories for each census year/place and a subdirectory for each certificate type.

ChrisBowyer · Post by **ChrisBowyer** » 10 Oct 2006 14:05

We have an Ancestry folder containing sub-folders named for each of 8 (joint) grandparents, and these are subdivided again by name for any branch that gets big. Certificates, scans of other peoples trees, censuses, etc are then all filed together. It seems to work for us, but you takes your pick I guess

ganstey · Post by **ganstey** » 10 Oct 2006 14:36

I have a directory called 'images'. In there I have a directory called 'Census returns', and in there a directory for each census year. All of the census pages I have images of then go in there.

As for images of certificates, and photographs, I have a directory in the 'Images' directory for each person who is a blood relation that I have images for. This does lead to a large number of directories, but makes searching easy.

The only problem comes when I have a photo with several people in it (wedding group shot for example). In this case I tend to file the photo with the 'main' person. However this is starting to get messy so I may well reorganise how I do this in the near future.

Hope this helps
Graham

DBAMorse · Post by **DBAMorse** » 10 Oct 2006 15:06

At the risk of sounding naive, when people speak of 'directories', do they mean another folder. So that what happens is there exists a folder within a folder within a folder etc. Which is actually what I do at presdent. Just curious as any housekeeping advice could be useful.

Thanks

ChrisBowyer · Post by **ChrisBowyer** » 10 Oct 2006 15:15

What Windows now calls Folders used to be known as Directories in some systems.

There's no problem having folders within folders these days, it's just a matter of whether you want one long list or a number of shorter lists (but more levels) to find when you're trying to get at something.

SunnyLady · Post by **SunnyLady** » 10 Oct 2006 21:31

I file by family using my four grandparents as roots - a folder for the main family and when I get quite a lot of information on an individual I make a sub folder - certs etc get filed with the person or for marriage with the head of the family (so mirroring the male dominated FH programmes)or if (as my gr gr grandmother did) the relative married a number of times then the marriages and antecedants/connections are sub folders as they are not my direct relations.

The exception to this is photographs or sketches that I have digitised - which I keep in a completely separate pictures folder - with copies of the ones I want for FH purposes in a sub folder of my F-Hn Gedcom file [which will travel with any copies I make of the GED file].

For a couple of individuals where I have a lot of info I have split their sub folder all over again: for example for my grandfather I have quite a few sub folders to do with stuff I have found in the Times, the firm he worked for, the house he lived in, his second wife and her fanily, etc.

And each root family has a general folder for things that don't quite fit the pattern. As my family repeats names all over the place the sub folders not only have the individual's name but also dates (or some other identifier) as part of their title.

and that probably sounds much more complicated than it really is.....

ganstey · Post by **ganstey** » 12 Oct 2006 11:19

when people speak of 'directories', do they mean another folder.

Yes, sorry. Directories are now called folders under Windows.

Graham

NickyJim · Post by **NickyJim** » 15 Oct 2006 14:47

Thanks for all of your replies.

I've decided to try out a structure based more on what source the file came from rather than who it's for e.g. Census/Location/1841-Surnamexxx.jpg rather than Surname/Census/1841xxx.jpg and using folders like 'General Records Office/Marriage Certificates/'. I'm hoping that this will tie in quite nicely with the way sources are dealt with in Family Historian. There's only one way to find out, give it a try!

Next time I want to split the file to send to someone, I think I'll give Jane's Family Historian Converter a try and see how I get on with that.

Thanks again

Nick

IzzardResearcher · Post by **IzzardResearcher** » 20 Oct 2006 19:14

Maybe a bit late in contributing to this thread, but it may prove useful to someone so here goes.

I use a combination of directories and filenames to organise my files. I have three directories named BmdIndex, Certificates and Census. The Census directory contains sub-directories for each census year, ie 1841, 1851 etc, whilst within both the BmdIndex and Certificates directories I have three sub-directories named Birth, Death and Marriage.

In naming my files I use a structure of followed by . In the case of census returns, I use the head of household for surname, forename and year of birth details, and also include .

To illustrate this, here is a listing of the files for my ancestor George Izzard, born c 1816:

BmdIndexDeathIzzardGeorge1816_1893Q2_D.jpg
BmdIndexMarriageIzzardGeorge1816_1838Q1_M.jpg
Census1841IzzardGeorge1816_1841Census_HO107-724-5-7-6.jpg
Census1851IzzardGeorge1816_1851Census_HO107-1526-199-11.jpg
Census1861IzzardGeorge1816_1861Census_RG9-160-63-23.jpg
Census1871IzzardGeorge1816_1871Census_RG10-455-6-6.jpg
Census1881IzzardGeorge1816_1881Census_RG11-130-87-19.jpg
Census1891IzzardGeorge1816_1891Census_RG12-212-98-56.jpg

I've found this advantageous for finding files quickly using the Windows XP Search option. Firstly, I can search for a particular census return using the source code.

I can also search for all the files relating to a particular person. For example I can get Windows to search for all files that include 'IzzardGeorge1816' in their name. By including the document's date immediately after the person's details, I can get Windows to list the files in date order as the search result lists the filenames
separately from the directory names (see below):

IzzardGeorge1816_1838Q1_M.jpg
IzzardGeorge1816_1841Census_HO107-724-5-7-6.jpg
IzzardGeorge1816_1851Census_HO107-1526-199-11.jpg
IzzardGeorge1816_1861Census_RG9-160-63-23.jpg
IzzardGeorge1816_1871Census_RG10-455-6-6.jpg
IzzardGeorge1816_1881Census_RG11-130-87-19.jpg
IzzardGeorge1816_1891Census_RG12-212-98-56.jpg
IzzardGeorge1816_1893Q2_D.jpg

This does break down when I want census returns for someone who is not the household head; I have to search for census returns for the appropriate household head, then ensure the person in question is listed on those census returns I found. (I couldn't see how this could be avoided other than holding mutliple copies of the same census page.)

Regards

Lindsey

Post by **NickWalker** » 20 Oct 2006 20:09

To respond to Lindsey's method, I use Gedcom Census for my census records (obviously!) and I make use of the facility to link the census image to my census sources and I also allow it to rename the image to match the source. The default naming scheme for sources in Gedcom Census means that a typical name of Image is:

Census 1881 Crook, Durham RG11_4928_4 (Elizabeth Holdsworth Harrison).jpg

As the image is linked into Family Historian I have no particular need to search for images using Windows Explorer, I can use the facilities of Family Historian to view the image.

Nick

IzzardResearcher · Post by **IzzardResearcher** » 20 Oct 2006 20:39

Nick, thanks for your response, I hadn't appreciated Gedcom Census could do all that; I shall be reviewing my filing system. In my defence, I'm new to Family Historian and Gedcom Census.

BTW despite only realising part of its benefits I'm finding Gedcom Census an excellent application for speeding up data entry [smile].

Regards

Lindsey

ireneblackburn · Post by **ireneblackburn** » 21 Oct 2006 10:47

It has been interesting to see the various methods people use. I have a 'Genie' folder which contains:

'Census images' with subfolders for different years and then file names are Thomas Dawson 1841 etc. I use GEDCOM to link these to census sources.

'Certificates' which is split into Birth, Marriage, Death and Baptisms (my grandparents kept everything!).

'BMD' where I have saved an entry from free BMD showing both names etc, but where I have not bought a certificate

'Parish Registers' (split into Baptism, Marriage, Burial) where I have bought copies of the parish register entries.

All of these are linked to sources in FH as multimedia objects.

I also have folders

'Misc' (school registers, information from Directories, Wills, odds and ends) with subfolders split by family.

'Church Photos'
'Places' - in FH I have 'Location' sources with information from gazetteers etc and I have linked the relevant photos to that source.

and of course 'Family photos' (split into family groups), again these are linked to FH

Family groups are divided by surnames of my grandparents so I have 4, my husband's family hoarded fewer items so he only has 2 groups, one per parent.

Irene B

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 30 Oct 2006 14:35

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[wiki]how_to:Organise your files[/wiki]

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